About

The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) is a nonprofit nonpartisan organization whose mission is to reduce society’s reliance on incarceration as a solution to social problems.

In pursuit of this mission, CJCJ provides direct services, technical assistance, and policy analysis that work in unison to promote a balanced and humane criminal justice system designed to reduce incarceration and enhance long-term public safety.

Direct Services

Currently, CJCJ has 14 model direct service programs that cater to both adult and juvenile offenders at various stages of the justice system. These programs serve Bay Area residents and operate in collaboration with San Francisco’s criminal justice stakeholders and other community-based organizations.

Technical Assistance

CJCJ provides technical assistance to counties and states to develop methods to reduce the number of adults or youth they incarcerate. Additionally, the Sentencing Service Program (SSP) provides expert analysis and assistance on a variety of individual criminal and juvenile justice cases.

"Who can imagine if their own kid is troubled, that you put them in a place with 2,000 other people that are troubled, and put a wall around them? ...in practice it provides a rationale for a quick and easy disposal; get them out of sight and out of mind." ~ Dr. Jerome G. Miller

In 1991, Dr. Miller supported the establishment of CJCJ as an independent 501(c)(3) organization. Embodying the spirit of deinstitutionalization, CJCJ expanded its community-based services to include the Supportive Living Program and Detention Diversion Advocacy Program. In 1997, CJCJ created the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), to conduct policy work from a social justice perspective in both its west and east coast offices. In 2003, JPI became its own 501(3)(c) nonprofit on the east coast as CJCJ continued research and advocacy on the west.

CJCJ continued to expand its provision of direct services to justice-involved adults and youth. In 2012, the agency merged with the San Francisco-based Northern California Service League (NCSL), a 64-year-old agency providing high-quality community-based re-entry services to formerly incarcerated adults. In 2013, CJCJ assumed operation of the former Youth Justice Institute (YJI)'s mentoring program.

CJCJ maintains a professional staff of 35-40 individuals with diverse backgrounds and expertise, including practitioners, policy analysts, and researchers. We possess over 30 years of experience in the criminal and juvenile justice fields including program operations, policy development and analysis, technical assistance, nonprofit management, program evaluation, and organizational reform.